Lingering Touches
by ImmortalObsession
Summary: Dark Magic's alternate/ chapter 53 outtake. Especially for the Team Harry fans who want their H/B fix. Read & Review. Warning: Slightly Lemony.


Lingering Touches

**Part III: The End _OUTTAKE_**

_"Where do we go from here?" _- Filter

_"I'll Stand By You" - _The Pretenders

"_Something I Can Never Have" - _NIN

* * *

><p>I SIMULTANEOUSLY COUGHED AND SNEEZED INTO MY ARM, NOT THE MOST PLEASANT COMBINATION. Being outside in a Washington storm, fighting the one battle that would go down in Wizarding History for ages, and snogging Harry in the downpour had not gone down well for my health. Evidently, being heroes of the Wizard World didn't protect Harry and I from getting wicked colds.<p>

Both emotionally and physically I had been drained, and I hadn't so much as seen Charlie's house since the day of the battle, three days ago now. I didn't belong there. I didn't belong quite anywhere recently.

When the fighting Wizards and Witches rushed in on the scene - victorious, too - there had been many long explanations that Harry and I had to mull through and then repeat to the Ministry when they finally showed up. The Ministry of Magic disguised the destroyed battle field under a charm glamour of forest and had all the remaining Death Eaters, scattered on the muddy terrain around us, quickly sentenced to Azkaban for life and Harry and I were quickly titled as Heroes of the Wizarding World. Not that it was new to Harry.

Now I wasn't just Bella Swan the Ex-Cursed Witch but also the Girl Who Survived, which was a sort of mockery to the prophecy between Voldemort and Harry from years ago although it had still proved correct in the final end. The next day (Harry and I living on two hours of sleep and halfdead) had to convince the hard-pressed Ministry in a long and tiring makeshift hearing not to obliviate the Cullens of our existence - including mine - ever.

When Harry pointed out crossly that it was us who had destroyed Voldemort when they had been infiltrated _again _like sitting ducks the Ministry relented out of embarrassment and let us all (including the ever present Cullens) off with a strict warning to keep our mouths shut. Finally been released at the harsh hour of midnight with purplish bruises under our eyes from lack of sleep and energy we hit the sack for a well deserved day long hibernation.

Looking back at what had happened the day of the battle, what had been released between Harry and I, I couldn't find the regret or guilt that used to come with stolen kisses from Harry. I only felt complete...and warmish, kind of the way I felt after a long pull of butterbeer except much, much better. Where we stood I still didn't know but I had the feeling that I might by the end of the day.

But I didn't want to think about those things now. It seemed like there wasn't enough room in the world for thoughts like that at all, not when so many lives had been lost and so many things still had to be done.

Everyone except Harry and I had returned to England over the course of the three days since Voldemort's end, including the Weasleys and Hermione who had parted with painful and somber goodbyes. I was torn between telling Harry he was better off in England without me because I knew I didn't deserve him and his astonishing love and patience, but I was also too selfish to let him go at all. But I had been given more time now and I would use it well, maybe I would even figure myself out.

We were currently in an upscale Wizard Inn - the best of the best for the warriors who had just defeated the utmost evil in all Wizard history - because there was no way I could go back home to Charlie. What would I say, 'I'm sorry'? It would never be enough, nothing would suffice as an adequate apology to take back the horrible and untrue things I had said to my father. Every single one I regretted forever. I pushed thoughts of him away too.

I needed peace now that my mind was my own again. I would never have to feel the sensation of my skull splitting open ever again.

I had been lying awake and cocooned by the sleeping Harry around me for twenty minutes now, thinking over what would happen next and not ever wanting to face it - or the world outside this hotel room. And as ridiculous as the thought was of staying cooped inside here forever, it was tempting as long as Harry was here.

I sighed, unsuccessful in trying to burn two holes through the ceiling with my eyes, and Harry stirred beside me. I started and flushed, flustered for some reason, when his green eyes - bigger without his spectacles - blinked open at me sluggishly.

I bit my lip and stared at him, waiting. Brown burned green and green seared brown.

"Hey," he finally said, voice rough and rugged from sleep but sending a rush through me all the same. I smiled at him, it was such a Harry thing to say, after all that had happened.

"Hey back," I whispered, pushing his unruly black hair back from where it poked into his eyes.

In response he tightened his arms around me, somehow pulling me even further into his chest so he could nuzzle my jaw. My cheeks steamed and I gasped as his lips brushed my collarbone, my fingers fisting themselves in his hair instantly when he proceeded to trail his mouth up my neck, planting open-mouthed butterfly kisses along the way.

"God," I panted. "Mm - err - ungh - _geez - _Harry!"

"Yes?" he murmured into my skin as he continued to decorate me in sizzling kisses. He made a sound of appreciation. "The marks are fading."

I frowned at him and touched my neck. "What marks?" I asked, nonplussed. He looked up at me and paused, his eyes dark now. I dropped my eyes from his, understanding what he initiated now. The marks from Voldemort's hands.

"Right." He considered me for a moment before he brushed his mouth over my lurching pulse. Once, twice, three times. His breath went heavy and he started to suck the skin there... "Wait, q-quit it!" I panted. I swallowed. "We can't do this Harry."

He froze and looked up at me, his eyes wide and his expression a mixture of bewilderment and reproach. "We can't do what exactly?" he said slowly, as if he were fearing my next words.

I licked my lips. "We can't..." I took a deep breath and started again. "We can't be together Harry."

"What I mean is, we can't be together right _now," _I added quickly when his face started to shut down.

"Why not?" he demanded angrily.

"Harry," I started. "There are people and deaths we have to face, questions that have to be answered, decisions made, and we can't stay shut up in this hotel room forever, hiding away from the rest of the world!"

His expression softened although his eyes still swirled with a mixture of emotions and he trailed his fingers down my cheek, inevitably calming me. "We can," he said, surprising me. "For a little while."

The thought of staying here with Harry and away from all the commotion of the Wizard World and Daily Prophet and Voldemort's end was...tantalizing. If just for a little while longer I could stay here with him. But I averted myself away from those selfish thoughts and shook my head vehemently, now cupped in his palms. I pushed away his hands and shoved myself off of the bed - now dressed in the Muggle t-shirt and jeans we had picked up at a gift shop instead of the goblin armor - and balled my fists, steeling myself.

It would be easier to say the things that had to be said to Harry the farther I was away from his dangerous, tempting touches.

"No, we really can't Harry."

I felt Harry's green orb gaze burn two distinct sizzling holes through my skin but kept my eyes steady on the floor. Harry _should _have had his fill of Bella Swan, I thought, enough of the troubles that came with me, and Harry _should _have been moving on to better things than me - someone deserving of him - yet he stood right here in front of me, swiftly grabbing his glasses and moving forward until his feet were planted stubbornly to the ground an inch from my own.

"Why not?" he said, his voice low and raw and demanding.

I swallowed and tipped my chin down further until it touched my chest and a curtain of my hair fell forward and hung between us like a shield, seperating us. My throat tightened in emotion, and I dug my nails into my palms.

"Bella, look at me," Harry urged when I refused to meet his eyes, frustration in his voice.

I squeezed my fists tighter, pretending not to hear him, and suddenly Harry's hand flashed out and roughly yanked my chin up. I gasped at his eyes, the hottest and most intense eyes I had ever seen _burning _me with undisguised fury.

"That's enough Bella!" Harry said hotly, blazing and I shrank although I was still clasped between his fingers. "You want me to leave? You want to blame yourself for everything that's _not _your fault just so you can be unhappy for the rest of your life? FINE, do it then! But you can't expect me to leave when you won't even _look _at me," he said and I was shocked at the raw hurt under the disguise of anger in his voice.

My vision went blurry and I panted, wiping at my eyes quickly as my chest tightened, and suddenly Harry's hand was fisting itself in my hair, the other clutching me so close air couldn't breathe between us.

"I can't just turn off my emotions like their a light switch because I'm not _cold _Bella," he growled, so close his hot breath washed over all my senses, his nose brushing the edge of my jaw. "And I can't go back to England because I can't go _anywhere _without you. I want you forever and you - can't - just - send - me - away." Although his words were demanding I could sense the desperation in his voice, seeping out of the cracks in his soul.

"I want you tell me the truth," he whispered to me. "This once."

I swallowed. "Truth about what?" I breathed and his lip curled up in vehemence.

"How does _this_-" He leaned down further so his lips gently brushed against mine and my breath hitched when he released his breath into my mouth tantalizingly before pulling away. One kiss from Harry and I was literally panting. "Feel? Really?"

I whimpered and without permission one of my hands left his chest to knot in his gloriously messy hair. Harry's eyes flashed and darkened. I nodded mindlessly, pressing myself closer to him, cocooned in his arms. His lips were a centimeter from mine, teasing me, and each word he said was the slightest, most agonizing brush of his mouth on mine. "Say it."

My eyes opened - they had shut at some point of this sweet torture - and I glowered at him. "Fine!" I snapped, pulling back enough to look him in the eye. My hands remained where they were, one on his chest and the other twisted tightly in his hair, the rest of our bodies unconciously intertwined.

"Part of me does want to go back with you Harry. Part of me wants to go to London and never come back to this place and be with my friends and family and YOU forever! But there's another part of me, and Charlie and the Cullens and Jacob Black need her...and she loves Forks," I said softly.

"She loves her new family. _I _do. I can't leave that Bella behind and I can't be in two different places at once," I finished, defeated, and then gritted my teeth against the suppressed emotion wracking through my body.

Harry buried his face in my hair and then his lips were at my ear, making me sigh. "Then I'll stay here with you," Harry said firmly. "For you."

"No!" I shouted and Harry flinched. "I can't take your family away from you too Harry, go back to England and...and stay there," I said, my own words breaking me. "It's where you belong. I mean, aren't you tired of all _this, _of me?"

Harry's eyes widened and then tightened and his mouth straightened into a thin line. He pulled my chin forward, gently now, and his eyes narrowed at me. My throat went dry and my stomach coiled in knots. I was lost in a forest of endless green.

"Tired of you Bella? How could I _ever _be tired of you, what with the trouble you get into everyday?" he whispered, smiling slightly, and I clung to his arms to keep from falling over. "I want you always Bella and the only place I belong is where ever you are."

I frowned. "You've got to go back - got to stop it - because staying with me is only going to cause you more trouble. Haven't you heard that I'm a danger magnet?" I said halfheartedly, biting my lip when I was finished to deliberate his expression.

"You mean stop loving you?"

"I don't want you to hurt anymore, especially not because of me," I said lowly, tilting my chin up strongly.

Harry shoved me away like I had burned him and stumbled back from me, his expression incredulous. He chuckled hollowly. "_Can't _hurt me?" he echoed, backed against the frosted window now. "What you're saying now, that's _not _supposed to hurt is it?" His laught was brittle and he scowled at me. "Right now my heart's _not_ supposed to be taking a trip to hell? That's news to me."

Tears started in my eyes and I blinked them away furiously, gritting my teeth. "You see?" I shouted. "This is why I'm no good for you, because I can't stop hurting you, hurting everyone!"

"Maybe if you stop lying all the time and start speaking the truth for a change that won't be a problem," Harry growled.

I blinked and ice plunged through my stomach, prickling my veins. I felt shock and immense hurt drop into my body in the size of a boulder. I gasped, forcing myself to be strong and determined not let him see exactly how bad that did hurt.

"I didn't mean to lie," I forced out and Harry instantly stepped forward, making me step back. It felt like the closer he got the further the wound inside my chest gaped, the more it hurt.

"But you did anyway and you're doing it now," Harry snapped. "When are you going to start telling the truth!"

I glared at the ground, biting my tongue in a vain attempt to keep the building tears back, three rapidly fell down my cheeks and I wiped them away furiously. Silence built between us like a wall of steel and I hated it.

Harry scowled at me and stormed away, disappearing behind me. "Where are you going?" I demanded, swiveling around to see him vanish inside the bathroom.

"The shower, since we're apparently _leaving _Isabella," he snapped without looking at me before slamming the bathroom door shut between us and further widening the gaping hole in my chest.

I sat down on the bed directly next to the bathroom - it was a cheap hotel room actually - and leaned forward, pressing my palms against my eyes to force back silly tears. My heart was splitting and felt heavy as a mountain, sinking my body under the weight of it... I heard the sound of the shower starting and thought of how Harry had called me _Isabella. _He knew I hated that name, it was impersonal and distant and _old. _It hurt that he had called me it, much too distant.

When Harry re-emerged from the bathroom - steam unfurling from behind him and pants once again slung dangerously low on his V-shaped hips I noticed with a ricochet of my hormones - I had exactly what I was going to say formulated in my head.

Without looking at him but at my knotted fingers I said, "The truth is Harry, I don't-" I bit my lip and realized I could _not _lie. Not to Harry, not to anyone. Not again. I controlled myself and my life now, and I was tired of the lies all the time, lie after lie.

I looked up and stared at Harry to find his eyes burning holes through my skin. "I can't say the truth," I admitted.

"Why?" Harry demanded, frustrated with me.

"Because," I closed my eyes in pain, "it makes letting you go _harder."_

After several beats of complete silence I opened my eyes, half-expecting for Harry to have gone, finally having had enough of me, but instead he was here, still staring straight at me.

"Don't let me go then," Harry insisted quietly when my eyes met his.

I grimaced. "How?"

"You've made sacrifices for others, Bella. They can do the same for you."

"But Charlie," I bit my lip, thinking hard. "He can't be alone again, even though he probably hates me now I have to make things up to somehow...and Edward and Jacob and Alice, my friends..."

"Bella," Harry said softly, snapping me out of thought. "Think of yourself for once. Only you. Now, what do you want?"

I closed my eyes, letting my heart act like a compass, envisioning a needle point that spun and spun, waiting until it stopped in the right direction. I felt an utterly _vicious _tug to the Wizard World and another strong pull from Forks. Why did I have to pick between such perfect people, such great places?

But, of course, I already knew my answer.

I opened my eyes and stared at Harry's wraught, seeking face. I breathed in and smelled his unique, unidentifable scent waft toward me.

"Harry."

"Yes?"

Holding his gaze the entire time I advanced forward carefully and once I had reached him I gently plucked his glasses off his face, tucking them into the dip of my tee before gingerly winding my arms around his neck and drawing myself on my toes, watching his eyes widen slightly.

"Will you-" I stopped and swallowed nervously before starting again, watching his face anxiously. "Will you stay here...with me?" I asked selfishly.

I bit my lip and our mouths were so close the air between them literally _crackled _with electricity. "If you let me," he breathed and my eyes widened at his answer.

I trailed my fingers down his face, memorizing the flow and shape of it, the smooth cheek and sharply cut jaw, the sweep of his strong eyebrows and fringe of unruly ebony hair dipping into his large green eyes. I rubbed my thumb pads over his soft pink petal lips and gasped at the smooth velvet that sidled across my skin when he kissed the inside of my thumbs.

He reached up and pulled my hand away from his mouth, winding it around his neck and my other hand followed suit, both knotting in the hair at the nape of his neck.

I nodded vigorously in answer. "Yes. Please."

His eyes dropped to my mouth and no sooner did I smash my lips up against his, feeling fire ignite between us immediately and explosions dance behind my eyes. Heat churned through me as our chests fastened together and his arms wound around me, crushing me to him as if he held me tight enough we would become one. I panted against his mouth, barely able to pull away from him to gulp down breaths before eagerly meeting them again. They were so soft, melting against mine perfectly, and I pressed my body harder against his for more of this euphoria.

Tears ran down my face and splashed on Harry's cheeks. They were tears of relief, tears of the _truth, _pouring out of me now. I gasped, heart hammering, and we pulled back for air again before Harry eagerly crushed his lips to mine again without holding back. I cried out against his mouth, the sound muffled by his own pants.

I clawed at his chest and felt his fingers dive into my hair, scraping my scalp, and I couldn't hold back the wild moan that ripped through me from the sensation. He grunted and his hands slipped down my back and hitched underneath my knees, lifting me up so I could wrap my legs around his waist in a clamp tight like a vise.

He stumbled forward and we whipped around - my back collided with the wall, making me gasp outright - and Harry's tongue instantly stole the chance to shoot down my throat, making my eyes roll into the back of my head from pleasure. I moaned out loud, rocking into him.

We gulped down air again before coming together again, crushing our bodies and fusing our lips and tongues together. A crack came from between us and Harry forced himself back just enough to look down the thin slit of air between our heaving chests to see the lens of his glasses slightly popping out from where it hung lopsidedly off my lowcut collar.

He made quick work of them, grabbing them and throwing them aside on the floor before fisting the bottom of my shirt and using it to yank me back upto him as he used his body to press me up against the wall, making my shirt hitch high up over my torso. His tongue delved into my mouth and met mine fiercely and I clamped my legs tighter around his hips before clasping both my hands over his cheeks tightly.

He ground into me, making me feel things I certainly hadn't ever felt before, and I caught his bottom lip between my teeth - eliciting a growl from him - before I opened my mouth against his, seeking his tongue. I moaned and ran my hands over his strong, sharp shoulders, digging my nails into his skin and making him groan.

Harry spun us around skillfully and walked forward, still kissing me savagely: our tongues dancing and locked in a battle that couldn't be broken. Then the world tilted and we suddenly fell onto the hotel bed gracefully, our legs tangling. Harry climbed over me and I gulped down air gratefully, on the verge of hyperventilation from being denied his touch so long and then suddenly so _overwhelmed _by it - by him. I loved every second of it. I loved every inch of _him._

Harry's eyes, so dark they were almost black, fell down to the exposed skin from where my shirt had ridden up and bunched around the top of my ribs. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.

I gasped, my heart hammering when he swam his hands over my stomach, pressing into the skin agonizingly slowly, as if he meant to remember the shape. I trembled underneath him and - finally unable to take anymore of this - thrust out my hand, grabbing him by the back of the neck to pull him back down to me. One hand trailed down my leg while the other cradled my cheek and I bathed in all that was Harry. He was turning into my air.

I splayed my fingers over his sculpted chest and stared up at him wondrously. "I want..." I breathed, still panting slightly. "I _need _you, always."

His eyes shined so bright it was the equivalent to staring into the sun, but like last time I endured his light. "I love you," he murmured, brushing the finger tips of one hand across my lips while the other curled around my hip before travelling upward and tracing invisible designs over my stomach. I closed my eyes, sighing, and then felt his mouth cover mine.

He grabbed his hips and I held onto his shoulders as he shoved me up the bed, his mouth hungry on mine. He groaned when I pressed myself harder against him and clawed me closer. His mouth left mine for an instant and I whimpered at the loss of contact but he soon supplemented with his mouth on my pulse and he sucked and bit the skin, making me moan. I yanked him back up to me, our tongues clashing together again, and his hips bucked forward into mine, making me starve for him even though I had him right now.

Every inch of me he touched and every part he didn't touch was on fire, everywhere burned, and I needed more. Somehow, some way I could not get enough of him. His lips trailed up my stomach and I gasped, on the verge of hyperventilation, and he pushed my shirt up higher with his lips.

He sat back and I threw my arms up as he yanked my t-shirt off before gluing our chests together again. Our tongues wrestled each other and my heart was pounding so hard I could almost hear it over the sounds of our animalistic groans. He ground into me and pressed his fingers into my skin, inching upward and higher and higher...

I gasped and he swept his fingers under the edge of my bra teasingly, making me writhe under him. He brought his hands back and swam them over my breasts before curling them around the back of my neck gently, slowing our anxious kiss until it wasn't as agitated or urgent as before, but now savoring and sweet as we pretended there was no tomorrow and no questions or sobering matters to soon face. Right now, it was just Harry and I, and this was only about us.

Harry lied us down and I curled into his chest, wanting to be as close to him as possible. We lay there for Merlin knows how long, saying nothing and appreciating each other's presence silently, occasionally meeting each other's eyes and sharing a secret smile. Never once did our iron hold on each other - that had quite the chance of leaving bruises - loosen, it only tightened when a particularly dark thought occurred to either one of us.

Eventually and what must have been hours later the flames that had slumbered awakened again and I knew when I met Harry's dark emerald orbs that he felt them too. I twisted around from where I lay on top of him and I caressed a trail from his navel - a subtle spritz of dark hair twisting around the cute hole before disappearing under his jeans, I bit my lip and my breath quickened - all the way up to his collarbone slowly using my lips and heard Harry's breath speed up.

I peeked up from under my eyelashes to see his eyes clenched shut and his Adam's Apple bobbing rapidly. Once I had finished my ascent to Cloud Nine up Harry's glorious chest I pulled back my head to observe him to find Harry with his eyes squeezed shut, fists balled, and appearing to be on the verge of exploding.

I slid my hand over the bulge in his jeans and he gasped, bucking into my palm. "Hey," I said coyly and his eyes blinked open, revealing the green window to his thoughts.

"Hey," he said back huskily and I suddenly considered this a hotter version of the morning. I rose up my hands and twisted them into his hair.

I felt his hands slide into my back pockets and snickered at him, but it died quickly when his lips and tongue travelled a dangerous road over my pulse and up to my ear where he bit the lobe, making my breath hitch.

"So Potter..." I breathed, my eyes shut in concentration to organize a sentence. "What's next?"

He undid the clasp of my bra in answer.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I hope all the Team Harry fans of DM enjoyed that little HB lemon. Please review. X)**

**Hot and slightly bothered,  
>~ IO <strong>


End file.
